Lean Product Development

“Lean Development” means different things to different organizations. Some organizations are “design-to-order”, where each customer order requires some amount of design effort. In such companies, customer requirements tend to be well defined, and the design effort typically involves the reuse of existing technologies that will be adapted to meet the needs of specific customers. Other companies engage in longer term “research and development”. New technologies must be developed, requiring greater study, testing and time, perhaps years to bring to market. And there are companies that lie somewhere in between. Regardless, all organizations need to be familiar with the “Lean Development Toolbox”. There are numerous tools in the “toolbox”. Companies must determine which ones will be most helpful in their particular applications. This one-day overview covers all of the key concepts a Lean Development system should be based on, and the tools that are available.

Voice of the Customer tools such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD) can help companies get off on the right track at the start of the development process. Target Costing is a concept that should be initiated at the beginning of a project and followed throughout. Costing models must be developed to monitor projected costs to verify that target costs can be met. Set Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) is a concept that should be put into practice early during the “study” phase of the development process. It is during this phase that different design alternatives are identified and studied. Design of Experiments (DOE) can help developers learn in more efficient ways during the “study” phase. Methods to help select a “solution” among the alternatives under consideration must be available. Trade-off curves and the Pugh Matrix are two such techniques.

Developers should be familiar with techniques that result in “robust” designs that will be more assured to meet customer expectations. These include Taguchi techniques, including System Design, Parameter Design, Tolerance Design, and Taguchi’s Loss Function. Design Failure Mode Effect & Analysis (DFMEA) can help to insure robustness as well. Here possible failures are considered and countermeasures are proactively included in the design. Design for Manufacturing & Assembly (DFMA) can insure that manufacturing capabilities are considered while the product is still being designed, as can 3P events. A 3P (Production Preparation Process) event is a kaizen event where a cross-functional team works to develop the details of a design while simultaneously developing the production process. The result is a design that is producible and will be more cost effective when transferred to production.

Of course, Project Management techniques are required to manage development projects over time. These techniques go beyond scheduling systems, and establishing “milestones”. Effective and efficient communication techniques can be put into practice that will insure success. These include visual management techniques, and methods to capture and share knowledge. The one-day workshop can be expanded to include an on-site assessment of current familiarity and capabilities with the various tools, identify “gaps” in their application, and to develop a plan going forward.

“Problem Solving” is identified as one of the three primary values streams in “Lean Thinking” (Womack, Jones). It can also be the one with the most potential value to the organization. The decisions made during the design process have significant and long term impact on cost and quality, as well as the ability of the organization to service its markets. Further, as an organization “leans out” other areas of the business and frees up capacity in the office and in manufacturing the question that arises is “how do we leverage this new capacity into delivering more value to the market?” Most often the answer is to develop new products and enter new markets.

However, a company may have an inefficient or ineffective design process that will become overwhelmed with even a slight increase in design related projects. Therefore, it may wish to conduct an actual Value Stream Mapping event of its design process. Such an event can serve as a springboard for a serious effort to “lean out” the product design process over time.

A particular design project or projects can be the subject of the event. A cross functional team of 6 – 8 people will participate in the event to develop current and future state maps, as well as an implementation plan to make the future state a reality. A review of value stream mapping is provided to develop the necessary skills of the participants to create a “current state map” of the existing design process. Then a thorough review of Lean Product Design concepts is provided. Concepts reviewed include: “voice of the customer”, knowledge re-use, rapid learning cycles, narrowing design alternatives, concurrent engineering, standard work, and flow processing. Contrasts to traditional design methodologies are also explored.

The Lean Product Design concepts are applied to develop a lean “future state map” for the product design process. This is done in the context of seven future state questions – a structured approach to design the new process. Participants will learn in-depth the intent of each question, while expanding their understanding of the basic lean concepts of value, flow, pull, leveling and “pitch”. The concepts reviewed can also be applied to transaction oriented design related processes such as configuration control, engineering change orders, product validation, design release, etc.

Typically, the team develops a 90-day implementation plan that identifies a series of improvement efforts or “kaizens” that will be completed. Specific kaizen events are scheduled, responsibilities are assigned, and follow-up is planned for. The expectation is that the organization will begin to see important benefits within the 90 day period. Beyond that, another 90-day plan is developed, and possibly another future state map, as the organization gains greater experience in applying lean and it continuously strives to improve the design process.

Typical Agenda

Pre-event: Scoping Exercise – to prepare for the mapping event

Day 1: Education in Value Stream Mapping and the basic lean concepts as applied to the product design process

A Future State Map that visually depicts the recommendations for improvement, as well as the projected benefits

An Implementation Plan to make the future state a reality

A cross functional team that has practical experience in Value Stream Mapping, and the means by which Lean Enterprise concepts can be applied to design processes.

Leaning the Product Development ProcessThrough Value Stream MappingOne Day Workshop

“Problem Solving” is identified as one of the three primary values streams in “Lean Thinking” (Womack, Jones). It can also be the one with the most potential value to the organization. The decisions made during the design process have significant and long term impact on cost and quality, as well as the ability of the organization to service its markets. Further, as an organization “leans out” other areas of the business and frees up capacity in the office and in manufacturing the question that arises is “how do we leverage this new capacity into delivering more value to the market?” Most often the answer is to develop new products and enter new markets.

This workshop demonstrates how the Product Design process can be re-designed based on lean concepts using value stream mapping. A review of value stream mapping is provided to develop the necessary skills of the participants to create a “current state map” of the existing design process. Then a thorough review of Lean Product Design concepts is provided. Concepts reviewed include: “voice of the customer”, re-using existing knowledge, rapid learning cycles, narrowing design alternatives, concurrent engineering, standard work, and flow processing. Contrasts to traditional design methodologies are also explored.

The Lean Product Design concepts are applied to develop a lean “future state map” for the product design process. This is done in the context of seven future state questions – a structured approach to design the new process. Participants will learn in-depth the intent of each question, while expanding their understanding of the basic lean concepts of value, flow, pull, leveling and “pitch”.

Finally, implementation strategies will be reviewed to successfully implement the envisioned future state. A case study will be provided to help hone the participants’ value stream mapping skills. The concepts reviewed can also be applied to transaction oriented design related processes such as configuration control, engineering change orders, product validation, design release, etc.

The workshop is based on the book “Value Stream Mapping the Lean Development Process: A How-to Guide to Streamlining Time to Market” by Drew Locher (Productivity Press, 2008).

Duration: One day

Who should attend: anyone in an organization who designs products or delivers engineering services, including management. Product Designers, engineering support personnel, even representatives from manufacturing, purchasing and cost accounting can benefit by attending this workshop.

Managing and Leading the Development ProcessWorkshop & Application Event

Management of the development process requires a specific set of skills and techniques. Certainly project management techniques must be applied. Key activities must be identified as well as the responsibility for completing each. The duration for each activity must be estimated, and the relationships between activities considered. Key milestones are identified and monitored to determine if a project is or is not on schedule. Unfortunately, this is where the management activity begins and ends in most companies. There is so much more.

First, it is imperative that the desired behaviors are exhibited throughout the development process. The responsibility for this falls on the project managers and development managers in general. Concepts such as “Set Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE)” do not happen by chance. Developers must be encouraged to practice it. They must be given “space” to “play” and to consider different alternatives. Desired experimentation must be budgeted for, including time and money.

Development managers must practice and teach “critical thinking” and the scientific method of “Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)”. This represents a transition of roles from “manager” to leader”. Managers must insure that effective communication and knowledge sharing takes place throughout the project, as well as beyond. This is accomplished through time tested visual management techniques. Such techniques have been used for decades to help manage complex projects such as those found in aerospace. However, they are effective when applied to projects of any scope and scale. A3 report writing is another technique that can be used to facilitate the management of the development process or project. Through simple one-page documents managers can monitor the progress of a project, provided necessary direction or mentoring, and capture and share knowledge within a development team or beyond.

The key management and leadership concepts will be reviewed with appropriate individuals in an organization, typically those in development leadership roles. They will then be expected to apply the concepts within their development process and/or on specific projects. Typically one to two months is required to initially apply the various techniques. Additional follow-up and mentoring is often required. Therefore, the application event usually consists of 3 to 4 days over several months.

3P Kaizen Event5 day Event

3P stands for “Production Preparation Process”. A 3P kaizen event is where the product development and manufacturing process design are merged. A cross functional team is assembled with representatives from both design and production. A 3P kaizen event can be conducted for a new product, a design change to an existing product, or a change in demand for a product. Ideas from nature and other industries are identified to get the team to “think out of the box”. The team will go through a disciplined, methodical procedure to facilitate the rapid evaluation of ideas for product design and production processes.

A major element of 3P is to design by rapid prototype. It involves hands-on experimentation of not just the product design but the means to manufacture it. This method has been called “Trystorming”. Instead of simply brainstorming – the creation of ideas – trystorming puts to test the ideas under consideration in order to more effectively assess them. For trystorming to work, effective and efficient means to assess ideas must be provided. Sometimes this has been called “rapid prototyping”. 3P allows you to try a solution, not just simply developing an engineering drawing. The key is to prototype not just the product, but also the manufacturing process.

Methods that allow for rapid prototyping can be as simple as manufacturing “mock-ups” of production equipment, or actual prototype shops with near-production or even production like equipment available for experimentation. Techniques for developing product prototypes can be as simple as models of the product made from inexpensive and readily available materials to stereo-lithography techniques that take mock-ups and make near production ready samples. Therefore, adequate planning and preparations must be made prior to the 3P event. Dedicated resources must be provided during the event, or at least ready access to needed resources.

There are several important quality management tools that are particularly applicable to the development process. Companies engaged in design activities of all types should be familiar with them, and capable of putting them into practice. These include: Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Design of Experiments (DOE), and Process Capability Studies.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the systematic translation of customer requirements into appropriate technical design requirements at each stage of Product Development, including the transition to production and the development of manufacturing processes. It makes use of the “House of Quality” that provides a methodology to successfully meet this critical objective. Companies that practice QFD “partner” with key customers to accurately and fully understand customer requirements (also called obtaining the “voice of the customer”). Once the design team has obtained the valuable information regarding customer requirements, it can proceed with the design effort.

Design of Experiments (DOE) is a methodology to design effective and efficient test strategies. Most designers and developers practice the One-at-a-Time (OAAT) approach during testing. Here one variable is changed at a time and the effects assessed. However, this approach can require excessive testing, and can provide misleading results. Techniques have been developed over 100 years ago based on sound statistical methods. Methods for analyzing data from experiments must be used including regression analysis and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Designers should not simply attempt to control product quality by applying tolerances to various design features without consideration of existing process capability. This is where Process Capability studies come into play. Too many companies are unaware of the capabilities of their various production processes, or those of their suppliers. This results in additional costs and quality problems.

This one-day workshop will cover these three important tools. It can be expanded to allow for application of all of the concepts to real world situations.

Who should attend: anyone in an organization who is involved in the design and development process. Product Designers, even representatives from manufacturing, quality assurance, purchasing and management can benefit by attending this workshop